"Letter from Our Man in Blossomtime" was first published in Glück's first book, Firstborn, published in 1968. It can also be found in her collection, Poems 1962-2012, published in 2013. This poem is another example of how Glück uses nature throughout her work. "Letter from Our Man in Blossomtime" also exemplifies how Glück writes about love and vulnerability.
The first few lines of "Letter from our Man in Blossomtime" describe the wind blowing through an idyllic garden landscape. An east wind blows the ferns in the same way a fan would, which makes the speaker reminiscent of their aunt's decrepit fan that is now in a frame. Also in this garden are "Black-eyed Susans", flowers similar to sunflowers, growing around blueberries.
This is all on display on the outside of the house. However, the inside of the house is not the same picture-perfect image the outside may lead one to believe.
On the inside, the house is run-down, maybe even uninhabitable. In describing the inside, the speaker says, “The ceiling, a convention of leaks / Makes host of our home to any and all weather.” The speaker also talks of everything in the house creaking.
Letter from Our Man in Blossomtime
Often an easterly churns
Emerald feathered ferns
Calling to mind Aunt Rae’s decrepit
Framed fan as it
Must have flickered in its heyday.
Black-eyed Susans rim blueberry. Display,
However, is all on the outside. Let me describe the utter
Simplicity of our housekeeping. The water
Stutters fits and starts in both sinks, remaining
Dependably pure ice; veining
The ceiling, a convention of leaks
Makes host of our home to any and all weather. Everything creaks:
Floor, shutters, the door. Still,
We have the stupendously adequate scenery to keep our morale
Afloat. And even Margaret’s taking mouseholes in the molding
Fairly well in stride. But O my friend, I’m holding
Back epiphany. Last night,
More acutely than for any first time, her white
Forearms, bared in ruth-
less battle with the dinner, pierced me; I saw
Venus among those clamshells, raw
Botticelli: I have known no happiness so based in truth.
Even though the house has its faults, the outside scenery makes up for it. "We have the stupendously adequate scenery to keep our morale / Afloat. And even Margaret’s taking mouseholes in the molding / Fairly well in stride." Yet the words "stupendously adequate" to describe the scenery make this line seem sarcastic. The garden is extremely decent, but not as extraordinary as we were made to believe in the first few lines.
From the title of the poem, we know it is a letter. The first sign of that in the poem comes with the line, “But O my friend, I’m holding / Back epiphany.” The speaker is saying to whom this poem is addressed, that they had a realization:
"Last Night, / More acutely than for any first time, her white / Forearms, bared in ruthless battle with the dinner, pierced me; I saw / Venus among those clamshells, raw /Botticelli: I have known no happiness so based in truth"
These lines reference Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus. According to Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi (an art museum in Florence, Italy), this painting depicts Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, arriving on the island of Cyprus in a clamshell (Parenti). In the poem, the speaker refers to the woman as Venus and states that they've had a realization about this woman after noticing her physical attributes for the first time more intensely. Since the woman is referred to as "Venus" this could be a reference to the love that the speaker has come to feel. After watching this woman practice domestic acts, the speaker has fallen in love with her.
However, this may not be a good thing because of how the poem ends. “I have known no happiness so based in truth.” Since the speaker has realized their feelings, it has brought them no feelings of happiness.
Works Cited
Cover Image: "Former student Louise Glück accepting the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for 'The Wild Iris'", 1993, Columbia University School of the Arts, https://arts.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cu_crop/public/content/Images/News/wri_hs_gluck_louise_pulitzer_hero_1000x500.jpg?itok=uzBV6-UN, Accessed 14 May 2014.
Glück, Louise. "Letter from Our Man in Blossomtime." 1968. Voetica. https://voetica.com/poem/7001, Accessed 14 May 2024.
Parenti, Daniela. The Birth of Venus. Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/birth-of-venus, Accessed 14 May 2024.
Contributor: Lillian Easom